Seoul Spotlight on Crypto.com

Our CEO Kris shared market insight and Crypto.com’s mission with the South Korean community via two exclusive interviews.

When the team headed to Seoul for the Deconomy Forum earlier this month, popular South Korean cryptocurrency influencers DooriDoori and Brain of God each caught up with our CEO Kris for a chat.

Blockchain technology a financial game changer

In the discussion with DooriDoori, Kris highlighted the importance of blockchain technology that makes disintermediation of legacy institutions possible.

“Disintermediation is very powerful and this (blockchain) technology holds promise that will allow us to give the user control over their money, data, eventually control over their identity.

“This is an absolute game changer and it can’t be compared to anything that was done before in financial services,” he noted.

The advent of cryptocurrency adoption

Drawing examples like Samsung’s S10 cryptocurrency wallet, Facebook and J.P. Morgan working on their own coin, Kris explained to DooriDoori about the imminent convergence of trends between consumer and institution, and that cryptocurrency adoption is on the horizon.

“It’s not a question of if cryptocurrency hits mass market, it’s only a question of when, and it is our role at Crypto.com to build the infrastructure so the products will accelerate this process.

With key products such as the MCO Visa Card and Crypto.com Pay, Kris believes that no other company out there has the same focus on user experience and incentives for users as Crypto.com.

“Our first company value is clarity of thoughts and we are focused on solving real customers’ problems,” he said, stressing on the team of 120 that works hard to deliver great products.

He also delivered a happy note on the card front, stating Crypto.com’s plans to ship MCO Visa Card to South Korea as early as Q2.

“The market is so far ahead of other countries in terms of the percentage of people who use/are into crypto; it can give a glimpse of what it will look like in other places (in the future).”

Addressing the subject of partnerships, Kris said the effort to bring crypto to the masses is not a lone effort and that ecosystems need to be built collectively.

“We are always open to partnerships as long as it makes sense for the customers; for us what matters is actual substance - How are we making life of the customers better? Are they able to get more perks, better cashback? Are the merchants able to accept payments and reduce their cost? What is the value for the customers?

“If we can provide value to customers of other projects with what we have built, we will do it,” he emphasized.

Learning from exemplary business models

In terms of competitions, Kris told Brain of God that Crypto.com is up against banks as the latter has many users that cryptocurrency projects do not.

“When we build our products, we take a similar approach as Amazon took when they released Prime; we’re bringing whatever banks are offering today and reinventing it and approach it the same as Amazon.

“Earn revenue in those products and reinvest into our base card product, so we can have products that are absolutely irresistible and something that people can’t compete with. Just like how (others) can’t compete with Amazon prime,” he said.

Kris also talked about the journey of Crypto.com thus far and shared his strong penchant for cryptocurrency.

When recently asked what he would do if he was not in crypto, Kris did not waver.

“I am very passionate about cryptocurrency. I think about this very often and just can’t come up with any answers; so my answer is crypto for life.”